Strathcona Regional District Board

STRATHCONA REGIONAL DISTRICT BOARD

Back row, L to R:
Edward (Ted) Lewis, Village of Zeballos; Jim Abram, Discovery Islands-Mainland Inlets, (Area 'C');  Mary Storry, City of Campbell River; Craig Anderson, Village of Gold River (Chair); Gerald Whalley, Kyuquot-Nootka/Sayward, (Area 'A'); Ziggy Stewart, City of Campbell River; Roy Grant, City of Campbell River (Vice chair).
Front row, L to R:
Corrine Dahling, Village of Tahsis; Noba Anderson, Cortes (Area 'B'); Charlie Cornfield, City of Campbell River (CSRHD Chair); Claire Moglove, City of Campbell River; John MacDonald, Village of Sayward; Brenda Leigh, Oyster Bay-Buttle Lake, (Area 'D'),

Incorporation

The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) was established on February 15, 2008 as one of two new local governments, created by the provincial government’s  restructure of the Comox Strathcona Regional District (CSRD). The other local government created was the Comox Valley Regional District. Regional districts are a unique feature of the British Columbia local government system, and the SRD, as with all regional districts, is a federation of municipalities and rural areas. Regional districts provide a government for unincorporated (rural) areas, a forum for inter-municipal cooperation and an organization upon which provincial mandates can be imposed, such as for regional waste management planning.

Four electoral areas and five member municipalities together form the SRD, whose boundaries cover approximately 22,000 square kilometers (8,517 square miles) and serve a population of 42,771 residents (2006 census). The region’s borders extend from the Oyster River in the south to Gold River, Sayward, Tahsis, Zeballos and Kyuquot in the north and west, and then east to take in Cortes, Quadra and the Discovery Islands, and a portion of the mainland north of Powell River.

Governance

The SRD has a board of 13 directors, comprising electoral area directors who are elected directly by rural area voters and serve three-year terms, and municipal directors who are first elected to a municipal council and are then appointed by council to the regional district board for a maximum term of three years. Annually, the board elects its chair who establishes committees to deal with issues such as land use planning, environmental management, water supply, etc.

Most matters, when dealt with at the board table, are voted on a one person-one vote basis, but there are certain issues that are voted on using a “weighted vote”. The weighted vote is determined by population. Every municipality and electoral area is designated one vote for every 1,500 in population. No municipal director is permitted more than five votes, therefore the City of Campbell River, with 17 votes, has five representatives on the board.

The regional district provides services such as assistance with Official Community Plans; approval/inspection services to encourage and ensure compliance; awareness and education; water and air enhancement; solid and liquid waste management; impact assessment; protective services such as 911, fire prevention/suppression, disaster response, search and rescue, victims’ assistance and animal control; recreation and culture, such as development and management of parks, greenways, recreation facilities; public utilities and services such as water supply, public transit, street lighting; regional planning and encouragement of sustainable development.

• Annual report
• Board of directors procedure bylaw
• Code of Conduct
• Committee list and external appointments
• Committee - terms of reference
• SRD area map
• SRD electoral areas boundary descriptons
• In-camera meeting and conflict of interest legislation
• Remuneration and expenses bylaw
• Strategic - 2009 workplan 
• Strategic plan 

• A primer on regional districts in British Columbia - provides background on the development of regional districts in British Columbia.
• Regional district tool kit.